UN declares Mali Ebola-free

Malian government and the United Nations declared the country free of Ebola after a 42-day period with no new case of the deadly virus found.

“I declare on this day, January 18, 2015, the end of the end of the Ebola epidemic in Mali,” Health Minister Ousmane Koné said in a statement.

‘Punch Newspaper’ reports that Ibrahima Soce Fall, head of the Malian office of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) also confirmed the development.

Countries must report no new cases for 42 days – or two incubation periods of 21 days – to be declared Ebola-free.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) data the worst epidemic of the viral haemorrhagic fever on record has killed more than 8,400 people, mostly in neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

At least 21,296 people have so far been infected with the virus, the WHO said.